Mchenry Officials In 1993 Case Defended

Wrongful-prosecution Suit Faces A Challenge

December 14, 1999|By Carolyn Starks, Tribune Staff Writer.

McHenry County's top law enforcement officials rightfully arrested and prosecuted Gary Gauger, a Richmond farmer who spent eight months on Death Row for the murder of his parents, according to an attorney defending county officials in a wrongful-prosecution suit.

James Sotos, the attorney representing McHenry County State's Atty. Gary Pack and several Sheriff's Department officials, is seeking the dismissal of portions of the suit filed by Gauger in October, and responded in court documents to other complaints made in the lawsuit.

"Our position has been and remains that Gary Gauger was prosecuted because he had told the police that he killed his parents and testified at trial that he did that," Sotos said Monday.

Gauger, 47, was convicted in 1993 in McHenry County Circuit Court and sentenced to death. He served three years in prison, including time on Death Row, until an Illinois Appellate Court overturned his conviction in 1996.

One year later, federal authorities indicted 17 Outlaws for a violent Midwest crime spree. James Schneider and fellow Outlaws motorcycle gang member Randall Miller were accused in the indictment of killing the Gaugers. Schneider has since pleaded guilty to participating in the Gauger murders and awaits sentencing.

Sotos filed the documents responding to Gauger's suit in U.S. District Court in Rockford on Nov. 24. The first court appearance in the case was Wednesday, and Gauger has until Jan. 22 to respond.

Sotos said before the evidence incriminating the Outlaws surfaced, prosecutors obtained a confession from Gauger, which Gauger reiterated in trial testimony.

"His prosecution was appropriate and based on evidence," Sotos said Monday.

Gauger contended in his suit that he was coerced into the confession and claimed that evidence in his case was withheld by the McHenry County state's attorney's office. The suit did not specify how much Gauger is seeking in damages.

The suit alleged that police denied Gauger sleep until he was in a weakened psychological state and told him they had physical evidence connecting him to the crime even though they didn't.

It contended that Gauger was brainwashed into thinking he could have committed the murders, in part by engaging in a game of hypotheticals with police.

In response, Sotos admitted that Gauger was interviewed for 15 hours but denied he was not free to leave or go to sleep. He also denied that prosecutors engaged in hypothetical role-playing with Gauger to coerce a confession, according to court documents.

"There was nothing unusual or out of the ordinary or illegal about the way he was interrogated," Sotos said.

"We believe that Gary's rights were violated and that this case will show that," said Larry Marshall, Gauger's attorney. "This wasn't an innocent mistake. This was a corruption of the process."

In late 1995, while Gauger was appealing his conviction, the state's attorney's office learned that federal authorities were uncovering evidence that incriminated two members of the Outlaws.

Prosecutors continued to oppose Gauger's release in the face of mounting evidence that someone else could have been responsible for the deaths of Morris Gauger, 74, and his wife Ruth, 70, who were found bludgeoned and slashed to death on their Richmond farm in April 1993.

"Federal authorities said it was highly confidential information that, if it would have been disclosed to anybody, it would undermine the prosecution and likely lead to the execution of the confidential informant," Sotos said. "The information was very preliminary and would have been reckless and irresponsible" to release.

Sotos said Monday he is not making any judgment on whether Gauger was involved in the murders.

Schneider testified that the Gaugers were killed because the Outlaws believed they had money stashed at their motorcycle shop. Schneider said in federal court that he and Miller stole $15 from the Gaugers after killing them.